Introduction

Data visualization is an extensive field at the crossroads of mathematics, computer science, cognitive and perception science, and engineering. The visualization process produces one or several images that should be able to convey insight into the considered process. In the words of pioneers in the field, visualization is “the use of computers or techniques for comprehending data or to extract knowledge from the results of simulations, computations, or measurements”. Visualization has emerged as a separate discipline in the 1980s of the last century, as a response to the increasingly large amount of data generated by computer numerical simulations of various physical processes, such as fluid flow, heat convection, or material deformations. Recognizing the need to combine visualization solutions with data analysis and data mining front-ends, a new discipline has emerged from the information visualization, scientific visualization, and data-mining communities: visual analytics. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.